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First Five PS1 Classics For Vita Include Alundra, Arc The Lad

One of the best announcements at Gamescom was the confirmation that PS1 classics will be made available on Sony's new portable.

So what titles will be the first to join the classic crowd on the PlayStation Vita? Well, MonkeyPaw Games will have no less than five titles ready for tomorrow: Alundra , Vanguard Bandits , Tomba , and both Arc the Lad and Arc the Lad 2 .

We still don't know the full list of PS1 Classics on tap for the Vita, but we do remember seeing big-name games like Final Fantasy VII , Twisted Metal 2 , Wild ARMs and Jet Moto during Sony's E3 presentation. When these particular heavy hitters will arrive, we're not certain, but those five above are nothing to sneeze at. By the way, if you love the idea of an action/RPG fused with The Legend of Zelda , you have got to try Alundra . Still one of my favorite games of all time.

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thedaini
thedaini
12 years ago

Does this mean you'll have to purchase PS1 games specifically for the Vita, even if you already purchased them through the network?

I thought you could play the PS1 games from the PSN on the PSP (ok, that was one too many acronyms starting with "P"). Did they change this for the Vita?

TheHighlander
TheHighlander
12 years ago

No, I very much doubt it means that at all.

Vivi_Gamer
Vivi_Gamer
12 years ago

I am also confused by this, If they have to re-release them all again just for the Vita that would be so daft. Why would I want to re-purchase a download a game I have already bought. Take it one step further, why would I want to re-purchase a download which I already can play on my PS3 & PSP… I hope I have just got the wrong end of the stick here…

DazeOfWar
DazeOfWar
12 years ago

You won't have to repurchase the titles you already own. This update is just making them work on the Vita. Sony never said you will have to re-buy them.

thedaini
thedaini
12 years ago

Thanks for the clarification. I hope you're right. They seem very unclear about this whenever they make an announcement regarding PS1 games on the Vita.

Ironically, I don't own a Vita, but have been thinking about it. Would be good to know I don't have to repurchase those games if I do get one.

TheHighlander
TheHighlander
12 years ago

I don't know why they are talking about these as if you can't play the other ones already released. This is the same thing they do with PSP downloadable titles. 95% of PSP downloadable titles work unaltered on PS Vita. So why would PS1 classics be different?

PS1 classics are little more than repackaged game disc images running in a PS1 emulation. This will work (I honestly cannot believe it will be any different) the same way as it does for the PSP downloadable titles.

Step 1, open your transaction history and download list on PS3
Step 2, re-download the PS1 classics on your list
Step 3, Open the content manager and tell it you want to transfer games from the PS3 to the Vita
Step 4, select all the PS1 classics, PSP titles and Vita games you have recently downloaded to your PS3 and click transfer
Step 5, make a coffee while the GBs tick by
Step 6, play

The only Vita exclusive element will be that older games will not be available for purchase directly from the Vita until they are certified or have their PSN entry edited or whatever it is that needs to be done.


Last edited by TheHighlander on 8/27/2012 10:01:31 AM

oONewcloudOo
oONewcloudOo
12 years ago

Surely when they release the firmware you could just go to the transaction history on your Vita and download ps1 classics from there like with PSP games.

TheHighlander
TheHighlander
12 years ago

You can't do that on Vita unless the games have been repackaged for Vita. For example, if you have GT for PSP, you can't DL it direct to the Vita, it has to go to the 'mothership' first. All you're doing is re-downloading to the PS3 and then transferring to the Vita as I described. It's just if you have a lot of games to move it takes a few minutes.

oONewcloudOo
oONewcloudOo
12 years ago

You can, just go to the PS store on your vita and tap the bottom right and go to download list and find a PSP game you want on your vita and download it I've been doing it since I got my vita

TheHighlander
TheHighlander
12 years ago

Newcloud,

No, you can't. Very many games cannot be transferred to Vita that way and must be transferred from the PS3.

Oh, I got 1.80 loaded, and as far as I can see PS1 games are still a total no show on Vita. :/

ART359
ART359
12 years ago

No Metal Gear Solid?? :/

DazeOfWar
DazeOfWar
12 years ago

This isn't the full list. They said at Gamescon that at least 100 titles will be available to play on the Vita with the new update.

ART359
ART359
12 years ago

100 titles!!!??!! Woo! That's what I'm talking about! 🙂 As long as I can transfer over my Crash Bandicoot titles and Metal Gear Solid I'll be more than happy until Assassin's Creed III LIberation comes out.

Oh and Tekken 2 as well.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
12 years ago

It's shocking how bad Sony is at B/C on their own systems.

TheHighlander
TheHighlander
12 years ago

I have to agree, this is something that should have been there since day 1 since it's done completely in software. I believe that they were re-implementing the emulator to take advantage of the Vita's specific control capabilities (not sure how much advantage it takes though). Still seems like an inordinate delay though. I am also wondering when I can turn my Vita into my alarm clock…I don't understand why that is taking so long either.

kraygen
kraygen
12 years ago

Honestly I think they left ps1 games out at release intentionally hoping that it would encourage people to buy more new vita games.

telly
telly
12 years ago

Vita has all the potential in the world and Sony seems to be saying all the right things about the features the system will eventually have. Boggles the mind they weren't available from the get-go though… imagine if Cross Buy were a day one feature? And whatever happened to remote play?

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
12 years ago

That could be kraygen, but having it available right away might have let PSP owners feel better about making the move.

In any case I've seen homebrew emulators go faster.

Solid Fantasy
Solid Fantasy
12 years ago

Awesome! Glad everyone is getting what they were asking for. Clearly we all want to use the Vita to it's full potential!

Sorry to take a trip towards negative town, but is it just me or does everyone want a vita to play games from three gens ago?

TheHighlander
TheHighlander
12 years ago

It's not so much that as people wanting the same collection of stuff that they had on their PSP. New games on Vita are far more compelling, but PS1 emulation is something that should have been there since day 1 and is an easy thing to complain about.

WorldEndsWithMe
WorldEndsWithMe
12 years ago

Well, the games (specifically JRPGs) were much better 3 generations ago 🙂

ethird1
ethird1
12 years ago

Romance of the Three Kingdoms was an awesome game for PS1. Get it. Also, Wing Commander 4 is fantastic as well. Just so many games to play again.

telly
telly
12 years ago

My PSP and games are packed up, ready for trade-in for a Vita. Just waiting to hear confirmation of the PS1 compatiblity list. A BIG feature for me. I'm going on vacation to a lovely beach in a couple weeks, I can't wait to take another trip through FF VII while I'm there 🙂

laxpro2001
laxpro2001
12 years ago

I did play Alundra back about 2 years ago by your suggestion Ben. Amazing game! Fantastic story as well!

frylock25
frylock25
12 years ago

vita update is live. already installed it. gonna try to upload some games now.

TheHighlander
TheHighlander
12 years ago

Hope you have better fortune than I have, so far it's a big fat zero, and no PS1 titles listed in the store for Vita either.

TheHighlander
TheHighlander
12 years ago

I'm gonna go ahead and call this update a sham. It's a steaming pile of garbage. From what I can see on the PS Blog, Europe has the 100 titles available and the US has like 9 titles that no one freaking wants anyway. Numerous titles do not work and do not transfer. Nothing in NA transfers. I don't even begin to understand what the hell Sony are doing. It's a pile of crap at the moment. It's worse than having no PS1 BC since what they have now is an empty promise and a butt load of questions. I mean seriously, it's a software emulation that runs the game disk images. There is *nothing* more to it than that. So why can't all PS1 classics simply be downloaded to the PS3 and transferred? This is just garbage.

Jed
Jed
12 years ago

@ Highlander-

I think we will have to wait for the store to be updated with the PS1 games made to work with the vita later today. After all this time I don't see how they could have botched this.

frylock25
frylock25
12 years ago

i read something that said they were going to start putting them out on a weekly basis. like that they were going to update the store everyweek with new games. im not happy about it. i expect maybe later today they might surprise us with more games on the store.

TheHighlander
TheHighlander
12 years ago

People often accuse me of excusing Sony left and right like some blind fanboy. I always point out how wrong they are. When Sony screws up, I'll always be right there pointing it out, and when they screw up something so easy in such a monumentally bad manner, I will be there to point it out gleefully asking why.

___________
___________
12 years ago

yay now i can stop draining the battery on my S3 playing crash bandicoot every morning!
bout bloody time $ony pulled their finger out and got this sorted!
hopefully gex and pandemonium are on the list too, just noticed they had been added to the store recently.
ah i have fond memories of gex, ah they do not make kids games the way they use too!
🙁
what happened to the smart a$$ animations of yesteryear?